I bid thee keep it till a keel cometh
thy way from our land, bringing fair gifts for thee and thine. For we
are not so unwealthy."

Those that sat nearby heard his words and praised them; but the Erne
said: "All this is free to thee, and thou mayst do what thou wilt with
the gifts given to thee. Yet shalt thou have the throne; and I have
thought of a way to make thee take it. Or what sayst thou, Puny Fox?"

Said the Puny Fox: "Yea if thou wilt, thou mayst, but I thought it not of
thee that thou wouldst. Now is all well."

Again Hallblithe looked from one to the other and wondered what they
meant. But the Erne cried out: "Bring in now the sitter, who shall fill
the empty throne!"

Then again the screen-doors opened, and there came in two weaponed men,
leading between them a woman clad in gold and garlanded with roses. So
fair was the fashion of her face and all her body, that her coming seemed
to make a change in the hall, as though the sun had shone into it
suddenly. She trod the hall-floor with firm feet, and sat down on the
ivory chair. But even before she was seated therein Hallblithe knew that
the Hostage was under that roof and coming toward him. And the heart
rose in his breast and fluttered therein, so sore he yearned toward the
Daughter of the Rose, and his very speech-friend. Then he heard the Erne
saying, "How now, Raven-son, wilt thou have the throne and the sitter
therein, or wilt thou gainsay me once more?"

Thereafter he himself spake, and the sound of his voice was strange to
him and as if he knew it not: "Chieftain, I will not gainsay thee, but
will take thy gift, and thy friendship therewith, whatsoever hath
betided. Yet would I say a word or two unto the woman that sitteth
yonder. For I have been straying amongst wiles and images, and mayhappen
I shall yet find this to be but a dream of the night, or a beguilement of
the day." Therewith he arose from the table, and walked slowly down the
hall; but it was a near thing that he did not fall a-weeping before all
those aliens, so full his heart was.

He came and stood before the Hostage, and their eyes were upon each
other, and for a little while they had no words. Then Hallblithe began,
wondering at his voice as he spake: "Art thou a woman and my
speech-friend? For many images have mocked me, and I have been
encompassed with lies, and led astray by behests that have not been
fulfilled. And the world hath become strange to me, and emp